I'm not sure what you mean here, Joesitz. I don't think figure skating is "off the television all together" -- at least, I watched quite a bit of it this season on TV. And part of the "budding skating sport" on the TV leading into the 90s was, by the by, pro skating (the World Pro was getting into prime time by the early 90s, people were really watching and apparently enjoying the past champs while learning to like the new ones, too). In fact, the "90s antics" would, I believe, have to include the eligible skating scene as much as the pros. One of the worst "antics" for the sport of skating as a whole, in my opinion, was the belittling attitude of the ISU/USFSA toward pro skating in the 90s (much like yours, in fact). Instead of banding together and trying to make all skating good and legitimate, you'd get USFSA head honchos telling all and sundry that pro skating was terrible, it was just joining the circus, pro comps were awful -- oh, wow, they have dumb things like "Battle of the Sexes" and team competitions like "Ice Wars" and such and they're so DUMB and so non-legit! Of course, the next week we'd get a USFSA pro-am or whatever they called it, and guess what, it would be a "team" competition or (yes, at least once) even a "Battle of the Sexes." And then, of course, the USFSA officials would blather about how wonderful THIS competition was because it was LEGIT -- and we'd see perfect scores awarded to people who fell once or twice or made other mistakes. And oh -- when the pros were competing in USFSA or ISU pro-ams, they were wonderful. When they were competing in pro events, they were dirty old pros and not worth watching. Cinquanta was equally dismissive of pro skating. Then, of course, some pro skaters gave back in kind, belittling amateur skating.
Continued diatribes against different aspects of the sport only give naysayers lots of ammunition to talk, write and broadcast about and confuses the audience that is looking for and hoping to enjoy the sport (let's see, I enjoyed Boitano and Yamaguchi this week, but am told next week while watching Michelle Kwan that what B and Y did was really stupid and not legitimate, the judging and rules are totally non-acceptable, but the event Kwan was in was wonderful. Then next week, she's in the same type of event I saw Boitano and Yamaguchi in two weeks ago -- and gee, they are there, too -- and this week, they are wonderful and so is the event. Then next week, I watch a "legitimate" event and can't begin to figure out the outcome, then read that there are judging improprieties. Then I watch the Olympics and am told judges are blatantly cheating -- so, what am I to believe? I'll just believe the whole sport is corrupt and won't watch anyone anymore).
I don't see the PGA putting down the Champions Tour -- OK, the guys are older and most of them couldn't compete on the PGA Tour, but they get support from the entire pro golf world. Pro golf reveres its past champions, rather than belittling them. Ditto for auto racing, NFL, etc. But that hasn't been true overall in skating (hey, Dorothy Hamill's great, but if she participates in the U.S. Pro, she's just a dirty old pro), and I believe THOSE "antics" really hurt the sport in the 1990s, and continue to hurt it today.
would be a better match.
I hope skating will make a comeback of sorts in the ratings, BOTH in pro and eligible.
